CaptureScreen

Taking screenshots isn’t just part of testing, with the little button on your keyboard to capture screen activity being a lot more useful than you realize. This is also the reason why an abundance of capture and record applications got created. It’s also the case with CaptureScreen, providing multiple ways to take screenshots in an easy process.

A major advantage is that the application doesn’t require installation in order to properly function, which means you can also use it directly from an USB flash drive on other computers as well. As a consequence, system registries remain intact. The only thing you need to make sure is whether the computer you use it on is equipped with .NET Framework.

Launching it brings up a transparent window, with no other visible elements other than a frame. The inside of this frame lets you view exactly what’s behind it, so you can choose an area of custom size. In order to grab a screenshot, you might want to know that controls are shown in the context menu.

On the other hand, the application comes with hotkey support for almost all of its functions, which you can cleverly view in a table and change them from the options menu. Several resolution presets are available so you can easily set capture size, with the possibility to add your own.

Needless to say that the output is an image file, for which you can choose formats like PNG, BMP, JPG, TIF, and GIF. There’s also the possibility to load and view other images. Unfortunately, there’s no built-in options to have shots automatically saved, meaning you need to manually do this after each capture.

You also get to use several image editing tools. The context menu provides a decent amount of presets, with the possibility to undo mistakes. However, there’s a dedicated panel for effects, letting you change basic color options, apply selective transparency, grayscale, psychedelic, emboss, lighted, and more.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that CaptureScreen is a practical utility that lets you effortlessly take pictures of screen activity. Multiple methods can be used in order to grab just the area of interest, with an impressive set of editing tools for post-capture, while hotkey support makes sure every action only takes little time.